4 found slain in Detroit home; homicides spiking

DETROIT (AP) — Police said Wednesday said three men and a woman were found shot to death in a home in Detroit, padding the city’s homicide total, which has already surpassed last year’s.

Officers found the bodies Tuesday night in a home in the city’s east side neighborhood, Detroit police Sgt. Eren Stephens said in an email. Police did not disclose the names of those killed, which house they were found in or whether they had any suspects.

The block where the bodies were found has about two dozen two-story homes. Like many Detroit neighborhoods, several of the homes are vacant. On the front door of one of vacant home, someone affixed a sign that reads: “This building is being watched.”

Carla Collins, 49, said that in August, she and some of her neighbors formed the “Tacoma Street Block Club,” a neighborhood watch, because suspicious activity in the area spiked when an abandoned building across the street from her home became a “dope house.”

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“This was a quiet neighborhood,” said Collins, who moved there three years ago.

Mayor Dave Bing and top police officials were expected to address the slayings later Wednesday at a previously scheduled news conference to announce a major public safety initiative.

Homicides rose this year in Detroit, reaching 354 through Thanksgiving after totaling 344 for all of 2011.